Topic: Best of the Wii U eShop (Round 3: 2014 - Part 1)

[M.K.Ultra]

Background
The Wii U e-shop will only be open for a limited time so it is worth looking at the games there while there is still time to buy them. I will be going through the list of eShop games chronologically by release date using Nintendo's Game Store site. I will be skipping over Virtual Console releases for now, but I will cover them at the end. I am also skipping games that were released on disc, unless that disc is not available or prohibitively expensive.
The Games: Round 3 - 2014 - Part 1
This third set of games encompasses the first six months of 2014. The following 22 titles are up for discussion with info in the following format:
Title (Developer/Publisher, price, availability on other consoles, Metacritic score (Metacritic Rank on Wii U), NWR review score [link to review])

• Cocoto Magic Circus 2 (Nacon/Neko, $29.99, Wii U only, 7 NWR review)
• Unepic (EnjoyUp, $9.99, Vita/XB1, 72 (115), 6.5 NWR Review)
• Percy's Predicament (Maestro, $5.99, 3DS/Switch)
• My Farm (BiP media, $4.99, Switch, 3 NWR Review)
• Blok Drop U (RCMADIAX, $2.99, App Store, 53, 6 NWR Review)
• Pure Chess (VooFoo, $7.99, 3DS, 61, 7 NWR Review)
• My Style Studio: Hair Salon (Cypronia, $4.99, 3DS)
• Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (Armature/WB, $19.99, 3DS/Vita, 7 NWR Review)
• Evofish (Moving Player, $4.99, App Store, )
• My Exotic Farm (BiP media, $4.99, 3DS, 2 NWR Review)
• Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure (Nocturnal, $2.00, demo available, Wii U only)
• My First Songs (RingZero, $9.99, 3DS)
• Abyss (EnjoyUp, $1.99, Switch, 59)
• Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails (Dakko Dakko, $9.99, PS4/Vita, 79 (98), 8.5 NWR Review)
• Ittle Dew (Ludosity, $9.99, 3DS, 79, 8, NWR Review)
• Gravity Badgers (Wales Interactive, $4.99, Vita, 48, 4 NWR Review)
• 1001 Spikes (Nicalis, $15.00, 3DS/Vita/PS4/XB1, 83, 8 NWR Review)
• Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition (Martial Hesse Dreville/Digital Lounge, $7.99, Switch/3DS/Vita, 73)
• How to Survive (EKO Software/505 Games, $14.99, PS3/X360, 55,
• Pushmo World (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo, $9.99, Wii U only, 80 (62), 9 NWR Review)
• My Jurassic Farm (BiP media, $7.99, App Store)
• My Arctic Farm (BiP media, $7.99, App Store)

Highlights
The first half of 2014 saw quite a few iPad games get shoveled onto the eShop. If you ever wondered what happened to Daan Koopman, it turns out he reviewed one too many My ___ Farm ports. The cheapest options this round are Flowerworks, an HD remaster of a Wii-ware title that has a free demo, and Abyss, both of which are $2. The best reviewed game of the bunch is 1001 Spikes, which has an 83 on Metacritic. I also hear good things about Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails, which is still not on Switch for some reason. Mr. Bungle's pick of the week is Pushmo World. This Wii U exclusive puzzle game was developed by Intelligent Systems, received a 9 from NWR, and is Metacritic's 62nd best Wii U game.
Comments
I welcome any corrections to the information I found when compiling the list. The information here is for the US so let me know about differences in other regions. Not sure what to comment, consider questions like:

• Why is Cocoto Magic Circus 2 so expensive?
• How well does Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate play on 3DS?
• Will there be a 30th anniversary edition of Another World?
• How do you survive?

[Order.RSS]

Oof, kind of a rough list huh.
Pure Chess is just a paid version of the website, basically an online chess client. You need a separate account and everything. It looks really nice though, and has (had?) crossplay with all their other apps on PC/Xbox/Vita and such.

Gravity Badgers... Yeah a 4/10 seems about right. You steer these astronaut badgers around galactic objects and hope they don't headbutt the Moon on their way to Saturn. The gravity affects their trajectory which is an ok gimmick, but this game also has some really poorly designed boss encounters. Probably works better on mobile.

I also played Abyss because it's always on sale for pennies, and it felt like opening your wallet over a storm drain and watching all your worthless change fall into, well, an abyss I guess. You know that Mr. Bean clip with the metal wire he's not allowed to touch? Imagine that but you're rapidly mashing (or not mashing) A to guide a light-up jellyfish through a maze with death on all sides. I don't have the patience for it at all and found it very frustrating. Possibly my least liked game on the system?



I heard Scram Kitty wasn't bad, I think it was a platformer meets shooter, but also on two screens at once? AFAIK it never was on sale whenever I checked the U's eShop, so I never got it.

• Why is Cocoto Magic Circus 2 so expensive?

There's an RFN episode about one of these Cocoto games. My impression is it might be a semi-popular franchise in other language areas, like maybe France, Italy, or Brazil. A quick search turned up this eBay listing of an actual disc release with lightgun Wiimotes:

• How do you survive?

The past year? Barely, and mostly out of spite, so maybe I should look into that game lol.

[NWR_insanolord]

I bought a few of these games but I don't think I actually played any of them. I did play Pushmo on 3DS, and the Wii U version is supposed to be good, so I guess I can recommend that one.

[Mop it up]

A lot of low cards in this hand, Pushmo World is the only one worthwhile to me. It's a bit of a shell without Miiverse, but still a fun puzzler.

[M.K.Ultra]

• Why is Cocoto Magic Circus 2 so expensive?

There's an RFN episode about one of these Cocoto games. My impression is it might be a semi-popular franchise in other language areas, like maybe France, Italy, or Brazil. A quick search turned up this eBay listing of an actual disc release with lightgun Wiimotes:

Very cool. I have been coming across quite a few games that had a disc release in other regions but were eShop only in the US. Perhaps they price matched the retail version and that only got as low as $30